Tuesday, April 3, 2012

An Open Letter to ABC and Their Cronies

Dear ABC,

I just wanted to let you know that your show, Good Morning America, is absolutely terrible. It is smut disguised as a news broadcast. Unfortunately, it is on every morning at my gym. Normally, I ignore it, but today I couldn't, mainly because I forgot my headphones. Not the best start to my day, clearly.

Instead of covering the news, you spend almost your entire show featuring sensationalized stories about "scandals" and celebrities. Meanwhile, actual news headlines, concerning the war, the economy, politics etc., stream across the bottom of the screen courtesy of the local news station.

This morning, you spent over 10 minutes on a story entitled, "NFL Cheerleader Sex Scandal," during which, your correspondents, or whatever you would call them, berated the accused, portraying her as a slut and a deviant. Now, she may just be a slut and a deviant. Who knows? However, I was under the impression that in America, you are innocent until proven guilty. But the innocent have not a chance when the media publicly burn them at the stake before they even get to trial. I highly doubt anyone from your "news cast" has met any of the parties involved in this case, yet you seemed to be sure that you knew exactly what happened.

The stories that followed were about Whitney Houston and the Real Housewives. You did cut to the local weather, which was probably the most informative segment of your show.

Do you feel proud of this? Is this what you think journalism should be? I wonder, did any of the people at your station even study journalism? I did. In fact, I wanted to be a news reporter until the basic principles of truth, objectivity, and educating the people were squashed by publications and networks like yours. I know you feel like you're giving people what they want. But I want you to know that though I may only be 25, I don't give a shit about the Kardashians or people like them, so I find your show insulting. What I do care about is education and civil rights and public policy; and these are just some of the topics I expect the news to cover. So maybe instead of assuming that all Americans are vapid, superficial people, why don't you take a risk and instead assume that they are intellectuals wishing to be informed? You could make a real difference.

I know I can stop watching your show, and don't worry, I sure will. But, since freedom of speech, like the presumption of innocence, is one of my rights (at least for now), I thought I might as well take advantage of it.

4 comments:

I hope you send this to ABC and also to local news. I feel that not taking your advice is essentially causing the erosion of social wellbeing; media certainly catalogues social 'progress', but it also guides the direction of that society profoundly.